IEEE Computer Society Newsfeed

Samsung Display is launching a flexible display for smartphones capable of folding in half. The company expects to produce 30,000 to 40,000 flexible displays each month by the end of 2015, according to Lee Chang-hoon, vice president of Samsung Display’s business strategic team. Samsung Display is also expanding production of its A3 display line based on the popularity of the Galaxy Note Edge, which uses the curved wrap-around display. The company announced that it will also be lowering its AMOLED display production costs, said Chang-hoon. This will enable Samsung to compete with LCD products and attract more customers. (ZDNet)(Digitimes)

A new San Francisco court ruling will allow Google to display its search results as it wishes, deeming the content protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Judge Ernest Goldsmith dismissed a lawsuit that claimed Google biased its search results to exclude the CoastNews website. CoastNews said its pages were consistently at the top of search rankings on competitor sites Bing and Yahoo Search. Goldsmith said Google is exercising free speech and is protected under the Constitution. This ruling contrasts with European regulators, who have investigated Google for being anti-competitive and ranking its own services above those of competitors including Microsoft and Yelp. (The Guardian)(Gizmodo)(Gigaom)

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is investigating AT&T after the telecommunications giant announced that plans for its high-speed fiber network are on hold until net neutrality rules are finalized. The FCC wants more information about AT&T’s plans for its fiber network, which was originally announced in April 2014. AT&T was planning to introduce the service in 21 major US metropolitan areas, covering some 100 cities. The company says it can’t make such a huge investment without knowing how the services will be governed, particularly if net neutrality is adopted. The FCC wants to know specifically how AT&T reached the conclusion that the company would lose money by expanding its fiber network. AT&T made the decision in response to US President Barak Obama’s public support of net neutrality, in which he calls for US broadband services to be regulated like other utilities. (Techspot)(Fierce Telecom)

Three people in China have been arrested on suspicion of spreading malware that infects the Apple operating system. Chinese law enforcement officials say the three suspects were charged with spreading the WireLurker malware, which primarily targeted devices in China. The suspects were arrested in the Beijing area, and Chinese authorities shut down the site distributing the malware. The malware was installed via software downloaded to Mac desktops from the Maiyadi app store, and could then attack iOS devices connected to an infected Mac. Infected Mac apps had already been downloaded more than 300,000 times before WireLurker was discovered, and a Windows version of the malware was found. Apple blocked the infected apps and warned users to install software only from trusted sources. (BBC)(The Verge)(Beijing Bureau of Public Security)

Some security researchers are berating the media and others in the security field for using Heartbleed or Shellshock as a source of comparison when a new software flaw is discovered. In early November, Microsoft patched a serious bug in SChannel (Secure Channel) that was found in each version of the Windows operating system since Windows 95. An IBM researcher reported the bug to Microsoft in May, and it was recently fixed. According to a recent article on securitywatch.pcmag.com, a security researcher from Tripwire referenced Heartbleed and Shellshock when discussing the Microsoft patch. The article states that the need for sensationalism to gain attention for information security to be taken seriously indicates “a problem, and it’s not the bug itself.” Each vulnerability issue should be taken on its own. Josh Feinblum, vice president of information security at Rapid7, noted that the SChannel vulnerability wasn’t like Heartbleed. “This vulnerability poses serious theoretical risk to organizations and should be patched as soon as possible, but it does not have the same release-time impact as many of the other recently highly-publicized vulnerabilities,” he wrote. “Microsoft customers can take a deep breath before they dive head first into patching, but should make sure patching is treated at the highest priority given the potential risk if/when an exploit is successfully developed.” (PC Mag)(Rapid7 Blog)

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